Snow plow



March 21, 1939.. s. G. WASHBURN Filed March 72.1, 1938 ATTRNEY.

Patented Mar. 21, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SNOW PLOW Selden G. Washburn, Goodwin, S. Dak. Application March 21, 1938, Serial No.-197,230

Claims. (CI. 37-43,)

This invention relates to'snow plows and has I is rotatably mounted a centrifugal fan or blower, for its principal object the provision of simple the general details of which may vary considerand practical means for the control of the enably in construction to that illustrated, as such trance of snow into the snow removing element of a device is well known in the art, with the excep- 5 the plow. tion that the housing for the rotor of the fan is Another object is to provide simple means made in sections, the rearmost portion or approx whereby to handle heavy, crusty, or icy snow with imate half being a fixed structure, the upper secequal facility to that of the finer loose and fluffy tion of which is illustrated at 8 and the lower secsnow. tion at 9, they meeting in the rearmost portion 10 Another object is that of providing simple of the fan forming the discharge throat [0, it 10 means for modifying the direction of discharge being preferably rectangular in form and obvifrom the plow. ously elongated longitudinally of the back of the Still other objects and advantages of the infan housing. vention will appear in the following description An adjustable section of the cylindrical portion thereof. of the housing is illustrated at H, and the end 5 11 Referring now to the accompanying drawing, walls 12 of which are in the form of a segment forming part of this application and wherein like of the end of the fan and pivotally mounted upon reference characters indicate like parts: the shaft I3 of the fan, but, of course, externally Figure l is a side elevation partly in section of the end walls It thereof. These end walls 12 and partly broken away of a unit embodying the of this adjustable section or visor member I I each invention. have an extension I5 thereupon, within the ends 2 Figure 2 is a front elevation of the embodiment of which and transverse the front of the plow is shown in Figure 1 illustrating an adjusted posiinstalled a shaft 16 and upon which shaft are tion of the entrance control mechanism of the independently pivotally mounted a plurality of 35 Plow. eccentrically shaped gate members I1. In this Figure 3 is an enlarged perspective view of one instance I have shown seven of such members, end of the toothed chopping elements of the plow. though this number may be varied as desired. In the drawing, I represents the chassis frame These members are of light metal construction of the unit which may be of fabricated metal such and function principally as automatically adjustas channel iron or the like and which is supported able shoe members for raising or lowering the 30 in any desired manner upon a supporting wheeled Visor member I l in respect to the snow engaged, axle indicated at 2, thus providing an oscillatory simultaneously with acting as a closure to the tWo W ee ed u t des ned to be pus y another front of the blade members of the rotor with the Vehicle, the front bumper of which is llu object of expediting the function in sucking in trated at 3, to which I have shown the chassis of and conveying the snow to and through the dis- 35 my snow plow sulky as being connected by the charge of the device. ball and socket joint 4 controlled with the quad- It will be noted that each one of these gate or t and lever indicat a the latter be an shoe members I! has a considerable fiat normally integral part with the ball arm thereof 80 that depending front portion [8 which readily Slides y Suc Co st the p sulky is free to be up over any height of snow bank engaged in front 40 operated either la e y Vertically, irrespeeof the machine until at least it assumes a position tiVe of t pushing Vehicle- W e I ave Show illustrated in dotted lines at l9, when, if sufiicient Such Connection as a practice] one it is to be of these members have mounted the bank 'ofsnow underst that this y be ly varied withengaged to this position and the bank still inout departing from the sp of the invention, as creases in height, they will raise the visor arcu- 45 may be true of other features of the instant showately and this movement may continue until the ing, described later. rearmost edge of the visor ll reaches the dis- For the steering of the plow sulky I have illuscharge spout 2D, or any point intermediate of the trated the steering post and wheel 6, which may latter and the front limits of the section 8 of the be positioned as desired and suitably connected fan housing where the forward action of the visor 50 with the wheels on which the device is supported, is stopped in any desired manner, as plainly illusthough only diagrammatically shown. A power trated. unit of any desired mechanism and connection is It will be noted that the faces l8 of the gate illustrated 1; 1, members I! extend somewhat below their arcu- Within the forward and free end of the chassis ate backs so that when raised to the position 55 shown in dotted lines, this projecting portion will contact the lower edge of the visor [I and prevent further upward motion thereof, these members also being provided with a stop cleat 21 to limit their opposite motion as may be required.

The flat or arcuately shaped blades 22 of the fan may be carried in any desired manner upon the shaft I3, and I here mention either arcuate or fiat, and refrain from a description of any specific form of spout, for these already vary materially in the art. However I have shown these blades 22 as being supported at their ends upon suitable spoke like members 23 fixed to the discs 24 adjacent the ends I4 of the rotor, and upon which discs are also attached adjacent the ends of the housing spoke like members 25 which carry, upon their extremities, the chisel or cutting bars 26 extending transverse the peripheral edge of the fan, and two of which chisel members are deemed sufiicient to function as means for breaking up any hard or icy condition of the snow encountered. The front or cutting edge of these chisel members are serrated as clearly illustrated in the drawing and are made sufliciently strong 25 to act as such.

' It is to be noted that the end walls M of the rotor are provided with relatively large openings indicated at 21 to provide ample intake of air as it is well known that the suction of such a fan is axially thereof and the discharge is radially therefrom, except where housed as shown and the blades do draw circumferentially as they approach the discharge terminus of the snow receiving opening in the circumferential face of the housing. An additional functioning of the gate members I! is to retard the centrifugal effect of the blades 22 against the incoming snow to the intake opening of the plow.

It will. be noted that the discharge spout 20 is novel in that both the intake and discharge are elongated rectangular openings upon two sides of the hollow triangularly shaped member, said member having a width slightly greater than the width of the discharge ll] of the fan housing so as to preferably fit thereover, and the length of each opening is also slightly greater than the length of the discharge opening III for a like purpose so that when the spout is placed with one of its equal sides downwardly upon the discharge opening it will discharge the snow to the right of the machine as indicated by the arrows; Fig. 2, and when placed with the other of its discharge openings upon the nozzle II) it will discharge the snow at the opposite side of the machine, thus providing an exceedingly convenient and simple discharge nozzle for the snowplow which functions admirably in throwing the snow in as fine and dust like particles as possible for cooperation with the wind that might assist in its distribution over a wide area and preventing large objectionable banks being formed of the discharged snow, this latter being the case with so many ordinary snow plows.

At 28 is illustrated a sheave fixed to one end of the fan shaft l3 for driving same as by the V-belt 29 leading to the motor 1, or other meansfor imparting motion to the fan, obviously being employed.

At 30 in Figure 2 is illustrated a pair of diagonally disposed braces for lateral strengthening of the forward extension I5 for support of the shaft [6 and which has been found in actual practice to be a material benefit.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a snow plow adapted to be pushed by a Vehicle, a horizontal chassis frame vertically adjustably attached to said pushing vehicle and pivotally supported upon a single transverse axle, a relatively large rotatable fan carried by the chassis forwardly of said supporting axle and discharging rearwardly and laterally of same, power means carried upon said chassis for rotating said fan, and oscillatory means carried by said chassis forwardly of said fan whereby to automatically regulate the entrance of snow to said fan.

2. A snow plow unit adapted to be pushed'by a source of power from the rear thereof, said unit having its own steering and vertically adjusting mechanism, and a centrifugal snow handling fan in the forward end thereof, further characterized by having an automatic oscillatory closure regulating the size of the snow entrance to said fan.

3. A snow plow unit comprising in combination a chassis frame mounted upon a single transverse carrying axle, a centrifugal fan forwardly of said axle for gathering and discharging snow, and an automatic snow entrance gate for said fan, said gate comprising a transverse shaft spaced forwardly of said fan, a plurality of oscillatory cam-like members pivotally supported upon said shaft and operable independently by a predetermined depth of snow in front of said fan and beyond which depth they operate in unison to further regulate said gate.

4. The combination with a centrifugal fan for handling snow surrounded by a cylindrically shaped housing, the front circumferential portion of said housing being adjustable pivotally in respect to said fan, and means carried forwardly of and fixed to said front portion whereby the snow entrance to said fan is automatically controlled.

5. The combination with a centrifugal fan for handling snow surrounded by a cylindrically shaped housing, the front circumferential portion of said housing being adjustable pivotally in respect to said fan, and means carried forwardly of and fixed to said front portion whereby the snow entrance to said. fan is automatically controlled, said means including a shaft transverse the front of said housing and carried by said pivotal portion thereof and a plurality of swingable members carried upon said shaft normally depending therefrcm and in front of the entrance to said housing.

SELDEN G. WASHBURN. 

